Dear Longford Primary School Families

We have had a busy and productive start to the term, filled with exciting events and meaningful learning experiences. I am delighted to share some highlights with you.

Over the holidays, our students and families participated in the ANZAC march and service. Our student leaders did a wonderful job representing the school and speaking at the service. Thank you to all the students who participated. It is important for us as a school to acknowledge ANZAC Day to honour the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women and to instil a sense of history and respect in our students. On the last day of term, we also held a school service, which included a moving drama performance by some of our Year 3/4 students.

On Election Day, our School Association and family volunteer group held a BBQ to raise money for our school. Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to support this fundraiser. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you are interested in joining our fundraising group, please contact the office. We are always in need of volunteers.

Last Thursday, students from Years 3-6 went on an excursion to AGFEST. This was an excellent learning opportunity linked to Science, Technology, and HASS, as well as a chance for students to have fun and build positive relationships with their friends and teachers. Thank you to all the teachers who helped coordinate this opportunity for our students.

This term, our value focus is Respect. Respect is crucial in creating a positive and inclusive school environment. It involves treating others with kindness, listening to different perspectives, and valuing each person's contributions. As part of this focus, Constable Shegog spoke with our Year 5/6 students about understanding anti-social behaviour both at school and in the community. We will also be asking our students about ways we can improve our school culture, and we will use this feedback to develop some new strategies to build our respectful school environment.

This term we welcome Miss Heys and Mr Jordan to our staff. Miss Heys and Mr Jordan will be teaching PE.

From Thursday next week, I will be traveling to the USA as part of the Hardie Fellowship. I will be visiting many schools across the country to learn about the latest research in education and how we can continue to improve our academic results, student engagement and wellbeing. During this time, Mrs Claxton will be Acting Principal for two weeks, followed by Mrs Copeland for the rest of the term. They will be supported by Mr Nobes, Mrs Jackson, and Mrs Freeman, who are ASTs in the leadership team. I look forward to sharing my learning with you when I return.

In partnership
Candice Burnett

Congratulations to students for receiving a
Respect Certificate of Merit

Willow, Rosie, Elora, Amelia, Charlotte, Theo, Charli, Georgia and Noah

Thank you to our volunteers for helping at the election day BBQ. Special mention to Leith and Marg for organising and also to Georgia for her commitment to help out from start to finish. Fundraising events like this enable us to support our school.

At our last meeting it was passed to provide:
$300 to be used for Petrarch book vouchers, used in each assembly as literacy rewards.
$500 towards the cost of the grades 3-6 Agfest excursion.

Thank you to the families and students who represented our school at the ANZAC Day march. Phoebe and Toby did an amazing job of reading at the ANZAC Day service, also Charlotte and River of laying the wreath. We have had community members send their congratulations to Phoebe and Toby for their public speaking skills. 

Grade 3/4  students from Mr McCullagh's class have been learning about expressing their ideas in creative ways in their ‘Performing Arts’ class with teacher Bindy Stephens.  Students learnt how to work together as a team, how to share their ideas, how to best listen to each other, how to positively problems and how to work to a deadline.  Students had fun learning how to express themselves using their voices, facial expressions and bodies.  They culminated as an ensemble to create a short performance as a tribute to the ANZACs at our ANZAC Assembly last term, expressing themselves through performance poetry and dance.

Grade 5/6 students celebrated their unit on birds with an exhibition of their art. Last week they had the opportunity to visit the gallery in Longford to see some of their art work displayed in a new Bird-themed Exhibition. Students completed their art pieces last term during some of their garden sessions. The exhibition is being hosted by Paul Kenny at 3 Marlborough St, Longford and concludes at 4pm on Friday (May 9th). All student pieces are available for sale, and some pieces have already sold. Thank you to Cathy for her organisation of this, and to Paul Kenny, the gallery owner, for his work in partnering with the school in this project and allowing us to visit.

The birding work involved clay seed balls, constructing nesting boxes and planting bird habitat and food plants. Local horticulturalist, Jim, made a delivery of plants during class time and shared with students his excitement for native habitat creation.

On the final day of Term 1, there were huge platters of fresh strawberries being shared at school. These were a gift from Dennis Betts of the Longford Berry Farm. A big thank you to Dennis.

Students that borrowed books every week in Term 1 went into a draw and the lucky winners received a book. Congratulations Ivy, Stacy, Dylan and Tilly.

3/4A and 3/4C recently engaged in an outdoor lesson, looking at our garden's leaf litter to see how many of each type of animal we could find. We are learning about living and non-living things, and what taxonomists do. We are also learning how to identify and classify animals and plants using a Branching Key.

Here are the category groups of animals we found:
Annelids
Arachnids
Crustaceans
Insects
Myriapods

What animals can you find in your garden's leaf litter?

Here are the animals 3/4A found:
15x Beetle
14x Flea
10x Slater
8x Small bug
6x Ant
5x Spider
5x Millipede
4x Fly
2x Earwig
2x Worm
1x Centipede
1x Insect head
1x Baby moth

Here are the animals 3/4C found:
22x 'Roly poly'
17x Small bug
14x Spider
12x Centipede
11x Ant
7x Millipede
5x Ladybird
2x Earwig
2x Fly
1x Leech
1x Flea
1x Tiny red bug/spider
1x Slater

This week we aim to graph our results and make scientific claims.

Congratulations to Jade, Bibi and Eleasah for being selected to represent the Northern Midlands Primary Schools at the State Athletics Carnival this Friday. Well done girls!

Marble Runs

Last term, Gr5/6s had the opportunity to work in teams to build marble runs from cardboard and craft pieces. Their challenge was to make the slowest run possible, needing to implement as many 'obstacles' and track parts as possible to achieve a slower time. Winners were a combined effort from Maya, Elinore and Bibi with just over 21 seconds for a marble to complete their run.

ACARA Link: "Students work individually and collaboratively to identify and sequence steps needed for a design task, including negotiating criteria for success."

If any family would like to donate cardboard rolls (e.g. kitchen roll, foil, glad wrap) STEM/DT will gladly take these off your hands for our next construction lessons.

Bomomo

Last term, Prep-1 students explored some Digital Technologies, including MS Paint and art website Bomomo. Students are learning to use the trackpad on the laptops, a skill that includes movement of cursor, clicking and 'dragging'. Here are some of our creations.

The Longford Tree Club is a student initiative involving 27 students from grades 1-5. They recently conducted a tree drawing competition and scavenger hunt. Both activities were greatly enjoyed. 

Last term our 1/2 and 3/4 students enjoyed a performance by members of the Tasmanian Sympathy Orchestra. Thank you TSO for visiting our school.

Our Cross Country Carnival for Grades 3-6 is being held on Monday 19th May, at the Longford Skate Park from 10:30am-11:45am.

Please remind students to wear/bring their running shoes, have a drink bottle of water and their asthma puffer if required. A jacket and trackpants are a good idea whilst waiting and a spare pair of socks, as the ground may be a bit wet.

Spectators are welcome to this event.

Students will walk to the park, departing school at 10:05am and return at the conclusion of the carnival.

Events (times are approximate)

Leadership Staff

Support Staff